As an actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has found success in Hollywood blockbusters and edgy
independent works.

With
Don Jon, his feature debut as writer and director, Gordon-Levitt displays his
understanding of audiences mainstream and marginal by crafting a modern romance that melds the
culture of
Jersey Shore with images culled from adults-only Internet videos, and a thoughtful message
about sex, love and related expectations.

Don Jon opens with a visual collage of sexualized depictions of the female body in pop
culture to establish the mindset of its main character, Jersey boy Jon Martello, played by
Gordon-Levitt.

Dubbed “Don Jon” by his friends for his ability to score with a different girl every night, Jon
finds that real women don’t live up to the thrill of a self-pleasure session with just the right
piece of online porn.

It is a thrill he partakes in 10 to 20 times a week, and every Sunday he goes to confession to
wipe clean his moral slate, thereby eliminating any need for reflection on his choices.

Through Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), Jon is introduced to the excitement of anticipation.

A “dime” on his crew’s 1-to-10 scale of hotness, Barbara makes Jon wait for what he wants, while
manipulating him into meeting her friends and bettering himself with classes.

On their first date, she takes him to a romantic movie within a movie — Anne Hathaway and
Channing Tatum do cameos as the leads — and devours the scenes of a first meeting and a first kiss
with the same hunger Jon brings to his Internet browsing.

With this scene and the intro, Gordon-Levitt illustrates the unrealistic ideals of love and sex
that are fed to each gender.

The introduction of Esther (Julianne Moore, radiant as always), a classmate who catches Jon
watching porn on his phone after he has promised Barbara that he’ll quit cold turkey, brings a dose
of reality to his view of women and an element of the unexpected to the narrative.

Despite his long acting career and previous work in short films, Gordon-Levitt can still use a
few lessons in subtlety.

But his raunchy directorial debut is promising nonetheless — assured in its style and
performances, and more ambitious than it needs to be. It is also the rare date movie that provides
something meaty to discuss later at dinner.